Rabid Bobcat Is Killed After Jumping Over Woman

A 65-year-old woman and her sister shot and killed a rabid bobcat in Tonto Basin after it jumped over her, scratched her arm and ran around the house repeatedly.

Margaret Ammett, was outside the home she shares with her sister Tillie Strahan at the end of Pioneer Pass Road and Highway 188, around 4:30 p.m. Sept. 29 when a bobcat came out of the brush and jumped over Ammett.

Ammett said she was clearing brush on the 3.5-acre ranch and had tied a rope around some tree limps to drag into a nearby pit. She already had multiple scratches on her arms from moving the brush. While taking the ropes off, the bobcat jumped over her.

“It came out lickety split,” Ammett said.

The bobcat ran under the house, was sprayed by a skunk and then ran around the yard for more than 20 minutes. Ammett asked Strahan to get her 12-guage shotgun after it was clear the bobcat was not going to run off.

“I took one pop at it and I hit it once,” Ammett said. “It then went by some vines and my sister shot it and killed it.”

The bobcat was hit near the ribs and near its back, Annett said.

“My sister was ready to shot it again but I told her no because it was already dying,” Ammett said. “It ran around pretty crazy before we shot it.”

Ammett said she has never seen a bobcat in the area before but she recently had several feral cats removed from the property and several more had moved in under the house, so it may have been looking for a quick meal.

Animal Control and Game and Fish were called out to retrieve the bobcat, said Gila County Sheriff’s Lt. Tim Scott.

Scott said the bobcat tested positive for rabies.

Ammett got nine rabies shots last week, the second time she has had to get rabies shots in her life.

Several years ago, while in Star Valley a rabid bobcat jumped on her brother-in-laws leg and she shot it off his leg.

It is important for people to be aware and realize these animals are in the area, Ammett said.